Apple has finally announced higher-storage versions of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Irritatingly, whereas some people were expecting them to allow the iPhone to catch up with the iPod Touch on the storage front, they simply maintained the 2x difference between the two (the new iPhone has 16GB, but the new Touch has 32GB). And of course still no sign of a 3G iPhone any time soon.

The storage and WWAN speed are the two biggest barriers to adoption for me personally, and combined with the high price (16GB for $500 plus a two-year contract) are still, I suspect, the biggest barriers to adoption for the iPhone in general. Add to that the carrier tie-in and anyone not on AT&T but in a two-year contract with another carrier is also unlikely to switch unless they have money to throw away. 30GB would just about cover me for storage since I’m a current 30GB iPod user.

One assumes this will just keep those “missing” iPhones sitting on stock room shelves for even longer, since few people are going to want to buy the lower-storage versions now - perhaps the price will come down to shift the inventory.

We also checked out the Mac Book Air in our local Apple store a few days ago - it is indeed impressive, and has that elusive cross-the-chasm charm that appeals to complete non-technophiles like my wife. But she was also able to quickly grasp its shortcomings when I explained the lack of optical drive, more than one USB port and so on. A niche product for sure, but an awfully good looking one.